I don't typically support the death penalty but I wouldn't complain here.

Why? So we can waste even more time and money on him? Sentence him to life and let him spend the next 60 years in jail.

Yeah, that's typically my argument against it too. That's why Illinois abolished it a few years back. The appeals take forever and cost hundreds of thousands, probably millions in this case, but I am more emotional about this. There would be something symbolic in executing the worst domestic terrorist in over a decade to me.

I do support the death penalty (although not the American version which draws out the whole affair in a sickening parody of justice. There is no good reason why anyone should be on death row for more than a couple of months). But I struggle to understand people who dip in and out of supporting it.

He is guilty. There is zero doubt. Set a date in a fortnight and hang him. Keeping him alive in a box for 60 years benefits no one

Considering the number of death row inmates whose sentences have been commuted or have been exonerated due to new evidence (primarily when DNA evidence surfaced), I don't think the death penalty is a rational punishment. It is far too risky. A life sentence can be overturned at any time, but death is permanent. Costs aside, we don't know what we don't know, and just like when DNA evidence began to surface, it is not impossible that in 20 years or whatever, advancements in criminal anthropology will bring about another revolutionary thing like DNA. If these people are already dead, we can't overturn that, but if they're alive, they can walk free again for as much as that's worth.

Not saying that will happen here.

It costs about $29K/year to keep him locked up. Perhaps more than that given the special protection they'll probably give him. So if he's in there 50 years, it's about 1.5 million. But maybe we'd get lucky and the guards will accidentally let him catch a shiv in a year or so.

Hang him in a fortnight? How about this?

Tsarnaev is insane
shoot him in the brain
throw his body off a train
or dump it down the drain

Don't need no lethal injection
He don't need legal protection,
or years in the D of correction
Give him a bullet injection

There are a number of immediately obvious reasons why summary executions are bad. I don't think it's necessary to elaborate further.

@bo

Symbolism is a poor excuse for executing someone.

I have a feeling his time in prison won't be a picnic.

He'd get protective custody because he's so high profile. Wouldn't survive a week in gen pop.

If you're wondering; yes, I've been to prison.

And by prison, I mean six seasons of Oz.

I support the death penalty in only a few cases: Wartime/time-of-conflict treason, crimes against humanity, prison escape/attempted escape while serving a LWOP sentence, and military crimes.

Because this bombing is time-of-conflict treason in my eyes (I actually couldn't dig up the full list of charges they nailed him for, but treason ought to be among them), I advocate the death penalty in this rare case. But Octavious has a good point about the terrible application of the death penalty in the US.

I say give him one good, solid, fair appeal, then execute him by some reliable, inexpensive, reasonably humane, and time-tested method (hanging, firing squad, whatever). No death penalty (except for the proposed but untested nitrogen asphyxiation method) is going to be completely painless, whether it's the poke of a needle or the jerk of a rope. We might as well make it quick. Even the sickest criminals deserve a quick end.

If there are really so many false convictions in the US it suggests you're doing reasonable doubt wrong.

The next big development will be in lie detection technology. It will simplify an awful lot of cases a great deal. Indeed, I suspect the main reason it hasn't been developed already is because the legal profession is terrified of it.

"prison escape/attempted escape while serving a LWOP sentence"

0_o. Do you even listen to yourself?

I stand by that statement. LWOP means that society has chosen to permanently remove that person from society via the prison system. If someone is serving LWOP and they bust out or try to bust out, then the only logical course of action is to make sure that they can't bust out again.

Obviously, "attempted escape" could be legally defined. It wouldn't be appropriate to execute someone for tunneling three feet into the wall, but it would be appropriate to execute someone for making it past the outer fence.

poor taste and poor ethics all around except maybe abge.

Poor ethics? I stand opposed to almost all cases of state-sponsored murder ("execution"/"capital punishment") during peacetime, except in the case of a LWOP convict escaping, because he/she presents an obvious danger to the rest of society and the prison system was unable to protect society from him/her with simple incarceration.

Wartime or military cases are a different story. If you provide aid/comfort to an enemy of the state during a war, then you get hung/shot. Period. If you're occupying enemy territory and you rape somebody, you get shot. Period.

I don't think he liked my rap.

Someone close to me was murdered once. Other people I know have had a gun put in their face and the trigger pulled, and thanks to God's grace, the gun jammed. Murder is heinous. Mass murder and terrorism are more heinous. Society's legitimate outrage against such acts demands the most exacting penalty possible.

If lethal injection is so expensive and controversial, let's just do it like the Chinese. Take him out back of the courtroom and shoot him in the head.

Hell, if it were me, I'd prefer a Red Chinese execution to an American execution. That's the one thing that the Red Chinese actually do right.

Right. Computerized justice and execution vans. That's the way to go.

Does anyone else ignore everything GF writes as soon as they read "Red Chinese"?

Pretty much. Maybe GF is just a big fan of Taiwan.

Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz

i respect the rap

I'm not arguing for execution vans. Give the guy an appeal. But once it's over, just get it done.

But the lawyers make less money if they can't oversee 25 years of appeals, and the lawyers need more money. /s

Alas poor Yanik, I knew him not at all well

Oh man what happened to James?